A hot air-balloon flies during the International Lorraine Mondial Air Balloons Festival, in Chambley-Bussieres, eastern France, Friday, July 26, 2013. (Photo by Mathieu Cugnot/AP Photo)

Marenda Schipper and Patrick Boelsterli show of their bee beards at an annual competition at Clovermead Adventure Farm, Saturday August 10, 2013 in Aylmer, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Dave Chidley/AP Photo/The Canadian Press)

Takehiko Yagi is a rising star in Japanese photography, and his vibrant pictures of the Hindu spring festival of Holi won the Grand Prize at the fourth annual Nikkei National Geographic Photo Prize. Diving into the Colors of Holi is his first exhibition in the US, on show at Foto Care Gallery in New York until 28 September, 2016. Here: Jaipur, India, 2013, (Photo by Takehiko Yagi/The Guardian)

A boy poses with a butterfly on his face during a photocall to promote the “Sensational Butterflies” exhibition at the Natural History Museum in central London, on March 25, 2013. With around 400 live tropical butterflies and moths living in the temporary facility, visitors will get the chance to see them flying freely as well as looking for emerging butterflies at the hatchery window. Running from March 29 to September 15, 2013, the exhibition is housed in a structure in the museum grounds. (Photo by Leon Neal/AFP Photo)

Kent Josephso organizes his 8mm tracer rounds during the Big Sandy Shoot in Mohave County, Arizona March 23, 2013. The Big Sandy Shoot is the largest organized machine gun shoot in the United States attended by shooters from around the country. Vintage and replica style machine guns and cannons are some of the weapons displayed during the event. Picture taken March 22, 2013. (Photo by Joshua Lott/Reuters)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

“Douglas Fisher has worked in the photographic industry for more than 25 years, starting out at 19 as an assistant before establishing his own studio, just two years later. Here, Douglas would go on to be among the first to champion the emerging worlds of digital photography and CGI, identifying early the transformative impact they would bring to advertising and high end photography”. – Tim Mitchell

Photo: «Carlsberg Launch». (Photo by Douglas Fisher)

British artist Nick Veasey used an X-ray machine to show us exactly what's going on under people's clothes. The equipment took copies of items separately before they were mashed together to create characters and situations. The work is part of Veasey's latest exhibition named “X-ray Voyeurism”. In order to create the work, the 51-year-old has spent the last 20 years exposing himself to harmful radiation in his studio. Photo: “Stripper”: Has tucked her cash away safely. (Photo by Nick Veasey/Barcroft Media)